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Old 02-17-2016, 09:29 AM   #1
dfinlay
 
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Default Affliction: Luck and similar limited use abilities

I want to create a character which can bless people with the Luck advantage, giving them a future lucky break. The thing is, luck can only be used once per hour game time (or once per day real time). The affliction, by a literal reading, would give a new luck advantage each usage and thus could effectively be used an unlimited amount of times. This seems over-powered. I'm not sure what the appropriate way to deal with afflicting limited use abilities. Perhaps the affliction can only be used once per X or perhaps it should only be usable once per X on each target.

The other complicating factor is that this is intended to be a Sorcery spell, so then the question of limited use becomes even more complicated. According to what was stated here: http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread...nate+abilities, if the affliction is disabled for the rest of the day, Sorcery probably should be as well.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anaraxes View Post
An entire AA set is disabled if any one of the abilities runs out of ammo. However, nothing in RAW prevents you from using N-1 shots on each ability. Again, you could have a global ER to share if you want use of any ability to reduce the resources available to all the others.
From a world-building point-of-view, this seems really odd to me, though, that unlike almost any other spell, this spell disables all spell-casting for a day when cast. Thoughts?
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Old 02-17-2016, 09:43 AM   #2
naloth
 
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Default Re: Affliction: Luck and similar limited use abilities

There are a few limiting factors.

First off, giving an advantage to someone that already has it doesn't really do anything. So if you afflict Luck to someone that already had it or was previous afflicted (even running out the timer from a prior use), it wouldn't help them again.

Second, when you're giving an advantage typically the usage of a transient ability is under the control of the giver. Luck used in that manner would require the giver to pay attention and then wisely use it.

Third, it's not an automatic success. It's possible to fail or have the duration run out. It's just better to pay full price for some advantages.

Forth, being the party enhancer kinda sucks even if everyone else likes it.
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Old 02-17-2016, 09:48 AM   #3
weby
 
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Default Re: Affliction: Luck and similar limited use abilities

Definitely not sure how RAW is but in my own game I have a lot of modified luck abilities so I had to make up how they work for me.

First change: The luck timer is universal for the character and additional levels of luck only modify the time until luck is again available. Different levels of luck can have different modifiers.

The second change: Luck is a leveled advantage at 15 points/level. I use longer time increments than standard, but in time unit standard that would cause a level of luck at 45 points, likely 20 minutes timer.

Person 1: No luck:
Cannot normally use luck.

Person 2 with luck 1(15 point normal) and extra level of active luck(+9 points):
They can use the luck in active manner and get the next use in half an hour(2 levels=30 minutes)
Or they can roll afterwards and thus only benefit from the full luck giving next luck use in 1 hour.

Both are hit by a power granting +1 level luck.
Person 1: Can now use luck for the duration of the power, and even if they are hit by the power again, cannot use luck until that one real world hour is gone.

Person 2: While the power is active:
They can use the luck in active manner and get the next use in 20 minutes (3 levels)
Or they can roll afterwards and thus only benefit from the full luck+the extra luck giving next luck use in 30 minutes.

So in my way the actual power granting the ability is in no way blocked, but would have no effect until the recipients luck timer runs out.

Also of note: A few of the powers I have are with Cosmic: +100% separate timer. That start a second luck timer that is independent of the normal luck timer, but is affected by it's own timer for future uses.
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Old 02-17-2016, 10:17 AM   #4
dfinlay
 
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Default Re: Affliction: Luck and similar limited use abilities

Quote:
Originally Posted by naloth View Post
There are a few limiting factors.

First off, giving an advantage to someone that already has it doesn't really do anything. So if you afflict Luck to someone that already had it or was previous afflicted (even running out the timer from a prior use), it wouldn't help them again.
This is true by RAW, but kind of irrelevant. You can cancel a Sorcery spell in several ways, including the Cancel Spell ability or a NMZ and then the target would no longer have the ability. Plus, if the ability has expiration, that could be shorter than the luck recharge cycle.

Quote:
Originally Posted by naloth View Post
Second, when you're giving an advantage typically the usage of a transient ability is under the control of the giver. Luck used in that manner would require the giver to pay attention and then wisely use it.
This is a fair point. Maybe a Cosmic +50% or something should be added to fix this.

Quote:
Originally Posted by naloth View Post
Third, it's not an automatic success. It's possible to fail or have the duration run out.
Of course. That's how afflictions work.

Quote:
Originally Posted by naloth View Post
It's just better to pay full price for some advantages.
Except this is paying full price (actually more than). This is not intended as a cheap way to get Luck (also note that I am the GM). The ability I am trying to model is an ability to grant people blessings. Additionally, a beneficial affliction actually costs more than the underlying advantage (as it should).

Quote:
Originally Posted by naloth View Post
Forth, being the party enhancer kinda sucks even if everyone else likes it.
Eh, I don't know about that. First off, this definitely won't be the only thing the character can do. Second, lots of people actually like playing Buff specialists.

Quote:
Originally Posted by weby View Post
First change: The luck timer is universal for the character and additional levels of luck only modify the time until luck is again available.
...
This seems like a reasonable approach. If no better suggestions or rulings come up, I might go with it.
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Old 02-17-2016, 10:19 AM   #5
Culture20
 
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Default Re: Affliction: Luck and similar limited use abilities

Quote:
Originally Posted by naloth View Post
Forth, being the party enhancer kinda sucks even if everyone else likes it.
This is a matter of opinion, and one I disagree with. I played a character with godlike visualization (affects others, reduced time, etc), and it's great fun for those who enjoy battlefield control. It's kind of like being the party flyer; if you can spend just a little more to be the air-bus, then it's more than worth it.
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Old 02-17-2016, 12:28 PM   #6
Anthony
 
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Default Re: Affliction: Luck and similar limited use abilities

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Originally Posted by dfinlay View Post
Perhaps the affliction can only be used once per X or perhaps it should only be usable once per X on each target.
I would probably handle it as follows:
  • the once per hour timer is global among all users of your ability.
  • for sorcery, alternative abilities, or variable effect powers, the timer only decays when the power exists.
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Old 02-17-2016, 12:31 PM   #7
Nereidalbel
 
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Default Re: Affliction: Luck and similar limited use abilities

1. I'd probably use Serendipity instead of Luck, so that things just happen to go their way once.

2. I'd put an Accessibility on the Affliction itself, giving 1 shot per target per day. Worth more of a discount if failure incurs the "once per day" limitation.
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Old 02-17-2016, 01:22 PM   #8
PK
 
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Default Re: Affliction: Luck and similar limited use abilities

Please see the Inspired Creation spell, which addresses how afflicted Luck works. Basically, the Luck that makes up your Affliction (Luck) is considered to be a single copy for the purpose of reset time. That's why Inspired Creation, which includes one level of modified Super Luck, can only be cast once per day. (The "per day" is due to the Game Time enhancement; without that, Inspired Creation would be usable once per session.)

So if you have Affliction 1 (Advantage, Luck, +150%) and you zap someone with it, and they use Luck, your buff becomes effectively useless for one hour of game time. (Technically, you can still zap someone else with it, but their borrowed Luck isn't useful until an hour has passed.) To get around this, buy a higher level of Luck in your Advantage enhancement. Affliction 1 (Advantage, Ridiculous Luck, +600%) would be useful every 10 minutes.

As to who has control of the afflicted Luck trait, that's really less of an issue than it seems, because Luck is a metagame trait, handled at the player level, not at the character level. Your PC doesn't say "I choose to use my Luck!" -- the player invokes it and the PC just happens to get lucky. If you want to say that the buffer's player has veto power over how the buffee's player uses Luck (i.e., ruling that the level of PC control over afflicted advantages translates to a level of player control), you can, but that's getting a bit meta-on-meta.
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Old 02-17-2016, 02:16 PM   #9
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Default Re: Affliction: Luck and similar limited use abilities

Awesome. Thanks for the ruling PK. I had somehow missed that Inspired Creation did this, having skimmed through it quite quickly and registered it as "bonus to crafting things spell".
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